Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, I received a copy of this for free to review.

I get to quote the blurb in its entirety for this book, because it’s short, simple and to the point: “Small town. Big secrets. Rough justice.” It’s pretty accurate.

This book is billed as an internationalbestseller and features Rocco Schiavone as he investigates what seems like a suicide at first but which rapidly turns into a murder. There are plenty of twists and turns along the way, as you’d expect from a crimenovel, and AntonyShugaar – the book’s translator – has done a pretty good job of things.

That said, I get sent a lot of contemporary crime novels, usually from mainstream publishers (this one’s from 4th Estate, which appears to be one of Harper Collins’ imprints), and so I’m used to a high standard. This book was good, but it wasn’t great – that’s why I gave it a 7/10. It was professional quality, but nothing more.

Antonio Manzini

The main criticism that I have for this book is the way that the police chief smokes weed throughout the book. It’s not necessarily that he does it, because I can imagine that a fair few policemen like to kick back after a busy shift with a cheeky smoke. It’s the fact that he’s the boss, and he smokes it while on duty, in his office at the station. His colleagues are aware of it, and they even directly refer to it whilst having meetings about the case, and it just broke my suspendeddisbelief. I just don’t think that would happen – no-one is that stupid, and if you get caught then that’d be an automatic suspension.